After Thinking I Was the Top, I Was Taken by a Cold Beauty - Chapter 9

On an ordinary night after evening self-study had concluded, Lin Yanxu left his dark classroom carrying a stack of student assignments that needed grading. As he stepped out of the school gates, he saw a black business car parked by the roadside. The driver immediately approached him upon seeing him.

“President Lin, the Chairman asked me to hand these documents to you. He also mentioned that the press conference next Wednesday at eight o’clock in the evening is very important. Please be sure to attend on time.”

Lin Yanxu had just taken the documents from his assistant and was about to respond when his train of thought was interrupted by a sudden thud. A slender young man appeared to have tripped over a manhole cover hook by the road and had fallen face-first onto the ground.

Yun Deng felt as if his head were splitting apart. He had originally come here to wait for the man to get off work so he could strike up a conversation. However, just as he was about to approach, someone else had beaten him to it. He had no choice but to wait. He thought that since the man was busy, he should perhaps give up for the night and return tomorrow. He did not expect to be so unlucky as to trip after taking only half a step. This was a second instance of social death.

Seeing someone fall, the assistant immediately rushed forward to help. The moment he touched Yun Deng, he heard a weak, thin voice.

“Do not… do not help me…”

With those words, Yun Deng attempted to crawl away while remaining face-down on the ground. However, before he could move more than a few steps, he felt a pair of hands grasp his waist below the shoulders and lift him directly off the ground.

Without a word, Lin Yanxu picked the young man up from the cold pavement and knelt on one knee to check his injuries. Seeing the young man’s small stature and the fact that school had just let out, he instinctively assumed the person was a student from the school. Assistant Wang stood at a clear vantage point. Even though the young man’s face was in the shadows, he could tell at a glance that the youth’s skin had been scratched by the gravel on the ground.

Only now did Yun Deng feel the delayed onset of pain. He reached up to touch his left cheek. When he realized that a large gash had been cut into his skin, he instantly lost his composure. At the same time, Lin Yanxu recognized the youth as the one who had been sleeping in the café. Before Lin Yanxu could ask anything, the young man began to cry out of pure grievance. For a moment, Lin Yanxu found himself at a loss for what to do.

Yun Deng cared about his appearance more than anything else. After all, he was relying on this face to find his perfect wife. Now, his only thought was that his face had been ruined. The wound throbbed with pain. Crystal tears welled up in his eyes, and at the slightest hint of misfortune, large droplets began to roll down his scratched cheek. Yun Deng sniffed, trying to restrain himself, but seeing both Lin Yanxu and a stranger staring at him only made him feel more miserable.

In all his years of service, Assistant Wang had never encountered a situation like this. He also instinctively assumed the boy was one of Lin Yanxu’s students. As a loyal employee, his boss’s business was his business, and he now wanted nothing more than to comfort this student. Lin Yanxu was not a particularly warm-hearted person, but seeing the youth sitting on the ground crying so miserably, he patiently pulled him up. He brushed the dust off the young man’s clothes. Within a few short seconds, the blood and tears on the right side of Yun Deng’s face had mixed completely. His face was covered in tear stains, and his eyelashes were soaking wet.

“Will I… will I be… disfigured?”

Yun Deng grabbed Lin Yanxu’s sleeve and leaned in slightly to close the distance between them, speaking in broken sobs. As the other man’s face drew near, Lin Yanxu instinctively took a step back, though he still answered the question. Standing nearby, Assistant Wang also got a clear look at Yun Deng’s face. Looking at those features, a name felt like it was on the tip of his tongue, but he simply could not recall it at that critical moment.

Only after receiving a negative answer from the man did Yun Deng’s emotions stabilize, and his sobbing finally ceased. Seeing that the youth had stopped crying, Lin Yanxu was about to suggest taking him to the hospital. In the next second, the youth pulled a phone with a shattered screen out of his pocket and held it out to him.

The weather was pleasant that day. A crescent moon hung in the night sky, casting a soft glow over the passing pedestrians. Even though Yun Deng was embarrassed and in pain, he did not forget his purpose for coming here. He absolutely had to get this contact information. Unexpectedly, Lin Yanxu seemed to intentionally bypass this gesture. Instead, he instructed the older man in the black suit to take the youth to the hospital.

Assistant Wang took a step forward and supported the young man. He even pulled a stack of tissues from his pocket and gave the youth’s face a casual wipe. He said with a chuckle, “You are a grown man. Why are you crying? Come on, Uncle will take you to the hospital to get checked out.”

The night was late, and Lin Yanxu, having business to attend to, left after giving a few brief instructions. As Yun Deng watched the man’s departing figure, he experienced a deep sense of despair for the first time. Subsequently, he was ushered into Assistant Wang’s car and sent to the hospital.

Fortunately, the wound only looked frightening. After some medicine was applied and a layer of gauze was wrapped around it, the treatment was finished. As they walked out of the hospital entrance, Assistant Wang saw that the young man’s eyes were still red from crying and could not help but offer some guidance.

“You need to be a bit stronger. When I was your age, I encountered much greater setbacks than this.”

Yun Deng had already calmed down by now. Regardless of what the older man said, he simply nodded in agreement. Finally, Assistant Wang asked if he needed a ride home. Upon being refused, the assistant asked a casual question before leaving.

“By the way, is your surname Yun?”

Yun Deng nodded and gave an affirmative hum. Assistant Wang looked at Yun Deng thoughtfully. Seeing the youth still standing there in a daze, looking unsettled, he remarked, “That surname is quite rare in the capital.”

The surname was indeed rare. In all the years Yun Deng had lived here, he had never met anyone with the same last name.

“It might be a niche surname. I am not a local of the capital,” Yun Deng explained.

Assistant Wang did not reply but smiled and patted Yun Deng on the shoulder before departing.

Having had his face scratched that night, Yun Deng had no desire to linger at the hospital. He hailed a ride back to where his car was parked and went home. As soon as he entered his villa, Yun Deng took all the gravel out of his pocket. He had picked up every single stone that had caused his humiliation. He stormed into the kitchen and pulled out a high-speed blender that he had purchased but almost never used. After plugging it in, he threw the pieces of gravel inside.

As he worked, he muttered under his breath, “I will destroy you, I will destroy you.”

The blender ran for ten minutes before stopping. Yun Deng lifted the machine from the counter, inspected it for a moment, and then slammed it down hard. Seeing that it was now broken beyond repair, he still did not feel satisfied. He poured the stones out onto a cutting board, grabbed two kitchen knives, and began hacking at them. He did not stop until the blades of the knives were jagged and ruined.

Finally, Yun Deng slid down to sit on the kitchen floor, leaning against the cabinet under the sink. He tossed a pebble back and forth in his hand. He could not stop regretting why he had cried like a baby in front of that handsome man. It was even more painful than the day he had a nosebleed while looking at him.

While he was mired in his sadness, the loud sound of breaking glass suddenly erupted from the living room. It was followed by the sound of a hammer hitting the floor, and then the sound of whispering drifted in from outside. Yun Deng lived alone. His first reaction was that a thief had targeted him. His heart leapt into his throat, and his movements became slow and rigid. He was terrified that if the intruder failed to rob him, they would turn around and kill him. He grabbed a kitchen knife from the cutting board to bolster his courage and used his phone to call the police.

Because of the suddenness of the event, he did not dare to go out and see who had broken in. Unable to judge how many intruders there were, Yun Deng turned off the lights and curled up under the kitchen cabinets. The noise outside was significant, as if the intruders were intentionally making noise to attract his attention. Yun Deng listened with intense concentration. After about a minute or two, everything went silent.

Yun Deng felt that someone was approaching the kitchen. Years ago, when he bought this house, he had installed an extra door to separate the kitchen since he rarely used it. When he had returned home earlier, he only wanted to get the stones out, so the door was currently slightly ajar. For some unknown reason, he was prompted to stand up slowly and move toward the door to lock it. Just as he was one step away, the kitchen door was suddenly pushed open. Upon seeing the scene before him, Yun Deng did not even have time to panic before his body went limp and he lost consciousness.

…

Inside a minimalist, modern office, Lin Yanxu sat on a sofa wearing a black suit. He was sipping tea while calmly flipping through the reports submitted by the company’s various departments for the month. After finishing his review, he stood up and returned to his desk to continue working on an unfinished design. Assistant Wang collected the documents and left the office. Just as he stepped out, he encountered a friend of Lin Yanxu.

Gu Xiao was a wild and uninhibited man who loved freedom. He wore a wolf-cut hairstyle, a sleeveless vest, and a black jacket. He walked in boisterously. Upon seeing Assistant Wang, he slapped him hard on the shoulder as a greeting. Assistant Wang felt as if his shoulder were being crushed, but he still responded with a smile. Gu Xiao entered Lin Yanxu’s office without knocking. Upon entering, he saw his friend using a charcoal pencil to work on a figure sketch. Although they were friends, they did not meet often, but the two of them shared many similarities in their values and perspectives. Based on this alone, Gu Xiao greatly admired Lin Yanxu.

“What are you drawing? Draw one for me too.” Gu Xiao pulled up a chair and sat down beside him.

Lin Yanxu had finally found some rare inspiration today, only to be interrupted first by Assistant Wang and then by his friend. Ultimately, he had to stop his work. After the two sat down on the sofa, Lin Yanxu brewed a cup of tea and placed it before Gu Xiao.

“It is rare to see you come looking for me,” Lin Yanxu said.

“If I did not come to find you, you would probably forget I exist. You are the only one carefree enough to go off and be a middle school teacher, yet now you are stuck doing two jobs at once,” Gu Xiao said, crossing his legs and looking at him.

Lin Yanxu did not answer, only shaking his head with a helpless smile.

“By the way, did you hear about the son of the CEO of COSN Jewelry? Is he not your business rival?” Gu Xiao continued to gossip.

Lin Yanxu had naturally heard about such a major event, as many local news outlets were pushing reports on it. Ultimately, it was caused by a company enemy. According to the police investigation, COSN Jewelry had collaborated with a manufacturer at the beginning of the year. Another company had also wanted to work with that manufacturer, and after losing the opportunity, they harbored a grudge.

The previous night, they had snuck into the home of the only son of the COSN Jewelry Chairman while dressed as the Ox-Head and Horse-Face demons. Their original intention was just to scare him as a lesson, but they ended up scaring the man straight into the hospital. This incident had even reached the top of the local social news search rankings in the early morning.

Gu Xiao held his phone and read the follow-up details to Lin Yanxu. He could not help but laugh. “The things that happen in your circle are quite interesting. Could this be what they call a business war? It is truly hilarious. Instead of a professional strike, they dressed up as demons to scare the kid, and they actually scared him into a faint.”

Gu Xiao found the situation both absurd and amusing. He had thought business wars involved stealing secrets, not dressing as ghosts to scare people. Lin Yanxu had only recently begun to gradually take over company affairs this year. He only remembered that the rival’s son was a few years younger than him; he did not know much else. Seeing Gu Xiao’s idle manner, he placed several stacks of ancient poem dictation books on the table in front of him.

Before the exams last Friday, the four classes he taught had undergone dictation checks. With forty-five students per class, he was currently worried about not being able to finish grading them.

“They dictated all the poems from the first six units. Circle any missing lines or typos directly. I will handle the final scoring.”

Gu Xiao flipped through a few books and was immediately struck by the bizarre handwriting of some students. The pages were so densely packed he could hardly recognize the characters. Having nothing else to do, he took up the task, grabbed a red pen, and began grading for his friend.

“The Song of the Pipa is truly long. You are quite something, making the students dictate so much at once. Fortunately, I did not have a freak teacher like you when I was in school. What on earth is this handwriting? Who could possibly read this?”

Gu Xiao carefully checked for typos against the original text in the textbook. Lin Yanxu pulled one book from the stack, checked the name on the cover, and placed it by Gu Xiao’s hand.

“This belongs to the class representative. It should be entirely correct.”

With a correctly completed book to use as a reference, Gu Xiao’s task became slightly smoother. He completely forgot that he had intended to stay online to watch for updates on the jewelry incident. Early that morning, an insider online had leaked that the son of the COSN Jewelry CEO had been a crybaby since childhood. They wondered if this incident had caused him to flood the hospital with his tears.

Such a thing was truly novel, and since it happened right here in the capital, Gu Xiao wanted nothing more than to buy a fruit basket and pay him a visit. Beside him, Lin Yanxu stood by the floor-to-ceiling office window, gazing at the distant skyscrapers and contemplating the matter. Finally, he turned back to his desk to busy himself with his work. He needed to familiarize himself with the company’s affairs as quickly as possible to prepare for taking over from his father.

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